August 2013

D.C. is ready to redevelop a property in the 1100 block of North Capitol Street near NoMa into a business, retail and housing complex, according to a recent Washington Post article.

The building, which once housing Temple Courts housing project, was razed in 2008 after city officials moved tenants out, saying new housing would be available by the end of this year. But those plans were stalled.

This month, while behind schedule, D.C.’s housing agency began soliciting bids from developers for the project to help some of the former residents return and offer new housing to new residents. Temple Courts was a low-income property with 211 units.

Development is hot in this NoMa area. But of the roughly 1,700 units in this neighborhood, city officials

The DC Public Charter School Board released a new proposal to assess charter schools using test scores from children in preschool through second grade. The standardized tests in reading and math would account for 60 to 80% of a school’s score.

Ultimately, the Public Charter School Board wants to make it easier for parents to compare schools, especially since 42% of DC public school students are enrolled in charter schools. The Board already implemented similar testing and performance management for elementary and secondary schools several years ago. But DC is one of the only states that allows charter schools to offer preschool.

Jack McCarthy, president and CEO of AppleTree Institute for Education Innovation and the AppleTree Early Learning Public

The National Mall in Washington, DC has 20 million visitors each year. It is the site of kickball, Frisbee, picnics, festivals, protests, and even historic speeches like the one given by Martin Luther King, Jr.

When Pierre L’Enfant designed the layout of Washington, DC in 1791, he envisioned the National Mall as a large, open space extending to the Capitol. During the 19th century, the Mall was covered with vegetation and grazing sheep. Then in the 20th century, the McMillan Plan decided to make the Mall a more ordered landscape to “celebrate the fact that this was the capital of this young nation and that it was grand in scale and orderly,” according to Roger Lewis, an architect who writes for The Washington Post and is professor emeritus at the

And within the District, Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant are among the regions in highest demand, with D.C. housing prices really skyrocketing, according to the Washington Business Journal. Properties in those neighborhoods regularly sold for more than 100% of their asking prices.

Penn Quarter and Shaw, two more of D.C.’s hottest neighborhoods, saw prices climb 38% from a year ago, with prices averaging $592,000. Cleveland Park and Kalorama saw median sale prices rise 30% from a year prior.

As nationwide housing prices are climbing, D.C. housing prices are proving one of the hottest gainers. D.C. area housing prices rose 9.6% in July from a year prior, with the District itself welcoming 11.6% rise in prices.

DC, like most urban areas, has always been an expensive place to live. But how much does it actually cost to live here?

The Center for Housing Policy recently released a report on the affordability (or lack thereof) of housing in the District. According to the report, a salary of $47,640 is required to rent a one-bedroom apartment at fair market pricing in the Washington Metropolitan area. That prices firefighters ($45,765 annual salary), child care workers ($30,522), and wait staff ($25,254) out of the one-bedroom housing market. Salary requirements jump to $56,480 for a two-bedroom unit, which is above the incomes of police officers ($54,755), legal secretaries ($53,839), and electrical engineering technicians ($53,254).

In Washington D.C., the real estate market is clearly in the seller’s favor. Here, prices are rising and inventory is tight. Couple that with rising interest rates pushing more buyers off the fence, and this seller’s market makes it one that’s tricky for buyers to compete in.

But buyers can take several steps to improve their odds of landing their dream home. First, understand a seller’s specific terms such as a desire to move out quickly. Buyers who cater to sellers’ specific wishes have better chances of securing successful contracts.

Buyers in D.C.’s seller’s market can also add escalation clauses to their bid offers. That means that they can posit a lower bid but can reduce their chances of being outbid by adding in a clause that increases in

The Montrose Residences are flats and two-story luxury homes in the Georgetown Historic District. These homes also come with a luxury price tag from $1.3M to 3M.

The Montrose is located at 3050 R Street in Northwest DC in Montrose Park, between Dumbarton Oaks Gardens and Oak Hill Cemetery, and across the street from the Jackson Art Center. The development is a renovation of the historic Hurt Home, which was built in 1897 as an assisted living facility for the blind. In 1987, ownership of the property was transferred to the city. The building later became the Devereux Children’s Center, a residential and psychiatric program for foster children.

The Montrose will house 15 new homes -- four flats each on the first and seconds floors and seven

Properties in Spring Valley in Washington D.C. are in the city’s hidden gem of a community, but it’s for the more elite crowd as the average price of a home here is $1.5 million.

North of Georgetown and Glover Park, properties in Spring Valley and its neighboring Wesley Heights have fewer restaurant and shopping options than in other parts of the district, but there are several noteworthy luxury spas here.

Among the more expensive listings for properties in Spring Valley, a $7.9 million home is on the market now at 4400 Garfield St. NW. It boasts nine bedrooms and 10 bathrooms with 8,815 square feet of living space on half an acre. This home is beautiful and in pristine condition.

The Otis & The Redding condos are selling one bedroom units in on the border of the Columbia Heights and Park View neighborhoods. Prices for each unit start under $300K.

The Otis was a vacant, decrepit building for quite some time at 809-811 Otis Place in Northwest with the back of the building along Georgia Avenue. The Redding, across the street at 812 Otis Place, NW, was also in disrepair. But Fortis, a DC-based real estate development and investment company, seized the opportunity to bring the buildings back to life with the name of the legendary musician Otis Redding.

Georgetown is a historic DC neighborhood known for upscale row houses and boutique shopping. But this year, neighborhood planners have envisioned the Georgetown of the future.

Georgetown has seen an influx of 30,000 new residents in the past two years, many of whom are young professionals. Joe Sternlieb, Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Business Improvement District (BID), is interested in their needs. “We'll be doing some focus groups with just that demographic in September to respond to some of the ideas that have generated through our Georgetown 2028 project over the last few months because we really want to understand what do they want, what do they need, and how do they plan to get around now and in the future?”